


Reunion

by EbonySolcum



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22362427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EbonySolcum/pseuds/EbonySolcum
Summary: Alternate opening for "Orphan 55". No spoilers for Series 12.
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/River Song
Comments: 50
Kudos: 295





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Besides, the first few lines, this story has nothing to do with "Orphan 55" and shouldn't have any Series 12 spoilers in it. Decided to write this because I felt so bad for the Doctor when her friends ran off to do their own thing and she said, "I'll have a look round then. . . . By myself."

The Doctor grinned as Hyph3n continued explaining about the spa. She had been worried about the TARDIS, but now that she knew she'd be able to get back to it, she was beginning to like the idea of a vacation with her friends. 

_Maybe Yaz is right. Maybe this will help me get my mind off--_

She didn't let herself finish the thought. 

“Your rooms are just being prepared,” Hyph3n was saying. “Take a moment to explore, and I'll come and find you once they're ready.” She waved and started off towards the building behind them. The Doctor turned back to her excited companions. 

“I'm gonna find the pool,” Yaz declared. She jumped off the teleport and started away. 

“I'm seeing what they've got inside the building,” Ryan decided. 

He hurried towards the building so the Doctor turned to Graham. 

“And I,” he declared, “am going to sit over there for three hours. Then . . . I'm gonna get up, sit somewhere else. And then . . . cocktails. All-inclusive, Doc! Gotta get your coupons’ worth.” He turned and stepped off the teleport platform in the direction he had pointed exclaiming, “Get in! Come on, Graham son!”

The Doctor turned back to look at the view. Her smile had slipped, but she was still making an effort to feel cheerful. 

“I'll have a look round then,” she said. “By myself.”

She knew it was silly, but she couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. It had been a little while since she had seen her friends, and since she had picked them up they hadn't had a moment of silence. Every place they had gone there had been some sort of interruption. 

_Chances are there'll be one here too,_ she thought glumly. _Still, it would have been nice to try and spend some uninterrupted time together._

But it was too late. Each of her friends had gone their own way. 

Tucking her hands in her trouser pockets, she hopped off the platform and started wandering towards the building. She continued past it, admiring the scenery surrounding it. 

She came to a large pool of rippling, bright blue water. She stood by it, breathing in the fresh air. Then she wrinkled her nose. There was something off about the smell, but before she could work out what it was, a pair of hands appeared on either side of her face, quickly covering her eyes. 

“Yaz?” she guessed. “Is that you?” 

But she knew it wasn't Yaz. The hands had been too light. She had only glimpsed them for a moment, but they had looked vaguely familiar, and they felt familiar too. Before she could come up with another guess, she felt a warm body against her back and the brush of hair against her cheek; then warm breath against her ear. Her own breath hitched and she caught a new, painfully familiar scent. The smell of an old library, of dust and outdoors, and of time filled her senses and she let out a gasp. But before she could gather the mental capacity to speak, a low voice reached her ear and she felt both her hearts skipped a beat. 

“Hello, Sweetie.”

The Doctor tore the hands away from her face and spun around. She stared up at the woman in front of her, her mouth hanging open in shock. 

“H-how--” she stammered. “How--”

“Is that any way to greet your wife?” River teased. 

“N-no. I need to know,” the Doctor said. “How do you know who I am?”

River raised an eyebrow and her gaze swept over the smaller woman. 

“Mainly the coat,” she decided. “Although, the braces are quite telling. And so's the jumper. Also, it helps that I've seen you before.”

“You've seen me before?” the Doctor gasped. 

River shrugged. “Couple of times. I must say, I love the upgrade.” She stepped forward, but the Doctor held up a hand so she stopped. “What's wrong?”

“Last time I saw you . . .” She trailed off, unsure how much she could say. 

“I didn't know you had any regenerations after Bowtie,” River finished for her. 

The Doctor's jaw dropped. “What?”

“I'm long passed that, Sweetie.”

“How do I know it's really you?” the Doctor demanded. “How do I know you're not just someone impersonating my wife? And I warn you, if you are, you'll live to regret it. No one impersonates River Song and gets away with it.”

“I'm very glad to hear that you're determined to defend my honour, but I can prove who I am,” River said. She stepped forward hesitantly and the Doctor let her lean in close. She couldn't have moved if she tried. Every one of her senses was filled with her wife and she had to close her eyes as she found golden curls brushing against her nose. She felt her breath on her ear once more and River whispered something a moment later. 

Before she could finish, the Doctor had flung her arms around her neck and crushed her lips to hers. River's arms snaked around her waist, pulling her closer. 

The Doctor pulled away a moment later, reaching up to take River's face in her hands. She could hardly believe it, but her wife really was there. She was real and solid and standing right in front of her. 

“But what about--”

“The Library?”

The Doctor nodded and River offered her a smirk. “Spoilers.”

She let out a breathless laugh, tears spilling down her cheeks. River pulled her back for another kiss. She couldn't begin to describe how wonderful it felt to have her wife back in her arms. The firm pressure of her lips was both wonderfully familiar and thrillingly new at the same time. Her hands found their way into the thick mane of curls and she found herself stretching up onto her tiptoes to bring them to the same height. She felt River tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear before cradling her jaw and pulling her closer. 

“River?” she murmured. 

She pulled away, pressing their foreheads together. 

“Yes, Sweetie?”

“You're really here?”

She laughed, gently wiping the Doctor's tears away. “I think so. Either that or someone's playing a rather nasty trick on me.”

“I'm still not convinced someone isn't playing a nasty trick on me,” the Doctor said. 

“Well, maybe someone's playing a nasty trick on both of us,” River suggested. “Let's just do what we've always done and take every moment the universe offers us.”

“Yes,” she agreed. “That's the only thing we can do.” 

Letting out a breathless laugh, she pulled River back for another kiss. This time, she was determined not to let her go.


	2. Introductions

Hearing her name behind her, the Doctor broke the kiss and spun around, disentangling herself from River's arms and catching her hand, gripping it tightly. Yaz and Ryan were coming towards them. 

“Hi, guys!” she exclaimed. She was still breathless and her cheeks were warm, but they didn't seem to have seen what exactly had been going on. 

“This place is awesome,” Ryan said. “And I haven't even seen much of it yet.”

“Who's your friend?” Yaz asked. 

The Doctor grinned. “This is River Song.” She turned to her wife. “I'm not sure if you've met them yet.”

River shook her head, her curls brushing over her shoulders. “No, but you've mentioned them. You must be Yaz.” She offered her hand to the young woman who took it with a confused smile. “And you're Ryan?”

He nodded, turning to look questioningly at the Doctor. 

“How does she know our names?” he asked. 

“And why did you ask if she'd met us when you know we haven't met?” Yaz added. 

“It's complicated,” the Doctor replied. “I suppose I'll tell her your names the last time she saw me.”

Ryan and Yaz glanced at each other. He mouthed, “What?” She shrugged and turned back to the Doctor. 

“So, how exactly do you know each other?” she asked. 

“Ah, now, that's even more complicated,” the Doctor said. “But to keep things short, in two words-- No, three words . . .” She glanced up at River, grinning awkwardly. “She's my wife.”

“What?” they exclaimed in unison. 

“I didn't know you're married,” Ryan said. 

“Yeah, why haven't you mentioned her?” Yaz asked. 

River raised an eyebrow. “We're back to not mentioning me again? First Clara, now these two?”

The Doctor felt herself blush. “Oh, hush,” she mumbled. “I've told you why. It was too painful.”

“Even after twenty-four years?”

“Especially after twenty-four years.”

“What are you talking about?” Ryan asked. 

“Oh, I'll explain later,” the Doctor promised. 

“Come on, Ryan,” Yaz said. “I think they want to be alone.”

She pulled him away and the Doctor turned back to River. 

“You knew I was coming here.”

“Of course,” River smiled. 

“How? I didn't even know I was coming. It was Graham's idea.”

“And how do you think he got all those coupons?”

The Doctor gaped at her. “That was you?”

“I needed some way to get you here without you knowing it was me.”

The Doctor grinned, slipping her arms around River's neck. “I love you.”

River grinned and leaned down to kiss her. “I love you too.”

They kissed again before deciding to head back to the building to get a drink. The Doctor dropped into a chair by a table and watched as River made her way to the bar. Her eyes followed her movements, watching the way her curls moved when she turned her head. She noticed the way the bartender looked embarrassed and tried not to think about what River might have said to him. She was beginning to remember just how possessive she felt towards her wife. 

The Doctor jumped when a hand fell on her shoulder. She turned to see Graham taking a seat beside her. 

“Hey, Doc. What's this about you having a wife?”

“Yaz and Ryan told you?”

“Yeah. Why did you never mention it?”

She shrugged. “Because she died and I had finally run out of time with her. It hurt too much to think about her.”

“I know what you mean. I didn't want to talk about Grace after she died. But then I realized I needed to.”

“Well, it had been over a hundred years since I last saw her. While I hadn't forgotten about her, I had gotten past the point of needing to talk about her . . . again.”

“What?”

Just then, River appeared on the other side of her, setting a glass on the table in front of her. 

“There you go. I got you some lemonade. I thought about getting you something else, but chances are you'd just spit it out and we can't have that happening.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“You're forgetting something, Sweetie,” River purred. “I know you better than you know yourself.”

She took a seat beside the Doctor and pressed a kiss to her cheek. The Doctor wrinkled her nose and took a sip of her lemonade. Then she noticed that Graham was starting at River. She must have noticed it to because she offered him a hand. 

“And you must be Graham,” she said. 

“This is my wife, River,” the Doctor explained. 

“But I thought you said--”

“Didn't Ryan and Yaz tell you she was here?” the Doctor interrupted. 

“They just told me you had a wife. They didn't mention meeting her,” he exclaimed. 

“Yes, well, I'll explain it all later,” she promised. 

“Alright,” Graham sighed. “I'm gonna go get myself a drink. See you later, Doc.”

He got up and wandered off. The Doctor turned to River. 

“Why did you call me here?” she asked. 

“I wanted to see you,” River grinned. 

The Doctor looked at her pointedly. 

“And I think something's going on here,” she admitted. 

“Of course there is,” the Doctor grumbled. “I can't go anywhere in peace.”

“It would be boring if something didn't happen.”

The Doctor laughed and reached over to give River's hand a squeeze. 

“Nothing's boring when you're around.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, here you go. I wish it was longer, but I didn't know what to add.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed! Comments are more than welcome!

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed. Let me know if I should do a second part where Thirteen introduces River to her friends.
> 
> I always forget how much I hate having two or more characters of the same gender in once scene. It gets so hard to use pronouns and I end up having to overuse character names. Ugh.


End file.
